If it hadn’t been for sports, John Peterson Jr. ’84 might never have come to NC State. If it hadn’t been for sports, he might not have been able to stay, either.

Long before Peterson graduated from what is now the Wilson College of Textiles with a bachelor’s degree in textile management, he was an avid NC State fan who watched the Pack play — in person and on television — every chance he got. Private support later enabled Peterson to begin his own academic journey at the university, and a football scholarship ensured that he could complete it.

Peterson is now using what he learned in the classroom and on the field to help people in his community as the president of an insurance agency. Together with his wife, Shannon, he’s also helping NC State students overcome their own financial barriers through an endowment that the couple created in 2025.

Hometown Hoops to Football Fever

Peterson grew up in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and vividly remembers the first time he set foot on NC State’s campus.

He was a member of the Wayne County Boys Club, and one of his coaches there had strong ties to the university. The coach took a group of youngsters including Peterson to see the American Basketball Association team Carolina Cougars play in Reynolds Coliseum.

That game led to many more visits to the Old Barn over the years.

“I saw Wilt Chamberlain in that arena,” Peterson fondly remembers. “I saw ‘Dr. J’ (Julius Erving), who was playing with the Virginia Squires at that point, play there. When I was a little older, the Junior Olympics were always held there as well.”

Peterson quickly became a fan of the NC State men’s basketball team, too. While he wasn’t with them in person for their unforgettable ACC and NCAA championship runs in 1974, he was definitely there in spirit while watching the televised games with his friends in Goldsboro.

The NCAA semifinals game against UCLA was particularly memorable for Peterson: He and his friends watched David Thompson and the rest of the NC State team make spectacular plays and then ran outside to try to re-create the shots themselves during commercial breaks.

Peterson’s friends thought he bore a striking resemblance to Thompson, which led Peterson to closely identify with the Wolfpack star. As a boy, Peterson painted portraits of himself playing the various sports he was involved in at the time. For basketball, he depicted himself wearing Thompson’s No. 44 NC State jersey.

To become a member of the very same Wolfpack as Thompson — and to be the first person in his family to graduate from college in the process — would be a dream come true, indeed, for Peterson.

“NC State was what I knew. That was where I wanted to go,” Peterson said. “From that March when I saw David Thompson fall, get injured and then come back into the game [against Pittsburgh in the NCAA Tournament], NC State was the only university I ever really wanted to attend.”

As much as Peterson loved basketball, though, football ultimately made his Wolfpack dream a reality.

“When it came time for me to apply to schools, I was a decent football player, and I had some offers from some smaller schools, as well as an HBCU (historically black college or university), but I only applied to NC State,” Peterson said. “I literally only had enough money to get me through the first year, and much of that was from a minority scholarship through the College of Textiles.”

That scholarship, combined with support he received from the Dillard/Goldsboro Alumni Association, gave Peterson the funding he needed to pay for his first year of college. (The Petersons have since created a scholarship with the association that is named in John’s parents’ honor in order to pay that funding forward.)

An unexpected act of kindness helped with the rest.

“Unbeknownst to me, my high school football coach actually took my film to NC State when he found out I got accepted and sat down with the coaches and said, ‘Hey, you need to give this guy a look. Just give him a look,’” Peterson said. “From there, I got invited to camp with the scholarship athletes. I was the only non-scholarship athlete that I know of who was there.”

By the spring of his freshman year, Peterson had proven his high school coach correct. NC State football coach Monte Kiffin awarded Peterson an athletics scholarship, ensuring that he could continue his journey with the Wolfpack.

“It was love, it was faith and it was grace that allowed me to build a union with NC State,” Peterson said.

Speaking of Love …

Peterson and his wife, Shannon, who is also a Goldsboro native, both have strong ties to the textiles industry there. His parents both worked in textile mills, and her mom did, too.

So, it isn’t surprising that he enrolled at NC State to study textile management. What is surprising: While the couple had attended the same high school and knew of each other, they did not become good friends until after Peterson graduated from NC State and returned to Goldsboro.

Football may have helped with that, too.

“I was like, ‘Who is this?,’” Shannon Peterson, a lawyer and an alumna of East Carolina University, joked about their meeting in a local grocery store one Friday night. “He didn’t look the same as he looked the last time I saw him in high school. He was a really filled-out, muscular guy and was really dressed up for a Friday night.”

Shannon quickly fell in love with her future husband as well as with his alma mater . . . although it took her a while to master the wolfie hand sign. The couple has traveled to countless NC State games over the ensuing years, and she even cheers for the Pack when they play ECU.

Their son, John Peterson III, ultimately attended Wake Forest University when his time for college arrived, but he was — and remains, unless a Demon Deacon is competing — an ardent Wolfpack fan. So much so that, when a friend came to help him pack his room for the move to Winston-Salem, the friend exclaimed, “Why do you have all of this NC State stuff in here?”

The elder Peterson has worked hard to support his alma mater over the years, including volunteering to serve on committees with the Park Scholarships and Caldwell Fellowship programs. He and Shannon are also financial supporters of NC State, especially his home college, and John has returned on multiple occasions to discuss his academic and professional journey with Textiles students.

Removing financial barriers so that others can attend college is very important to them, too. With their son’s graduation with a master’s degree from Wake Forest approaching in December 2025, the Petersons began looking for ways they could benefit students from low-income backgrounds and support NC State at the same time.

The newly established John A. Peterson Jr. and Shannon C. Peterson TRIO Support Fund is the result.

So Others Can Think and Do, Too

TRIO consists of eight federally established outreach and service programs that help students, including first-generation students and students who come from low-income backgrounds, afford to attend college, graduate and go on to successful careers.

NC State hosts four of these eight programs: two pre-college programs and two collegiate programs.

The first two, Educational Talent Search and Upward Bound, work with middle school and high school students to prepare them for college.

The latter two, Student Support Services and the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program, help students develop the skills and take part in the opportunities they need in order to be successful at NC State.

NC State’s TRIO programs were federally created, but private support is critical to their actual operations. Many generous donors have stepped forward to further their work over the years. Still, there has never been an endowment that provided general programmatic and discretionary support for the programs.

Until now.

The John A. Peterson Jr. and Shannon C. Peterson TRIO Support Fund will provide NC State’s TRIO programs with consistent funding regardless of fluctuating economic conditions — a key benefit of endowed giving.

“We are incredibly grateful for John and Shannon Peterson’s generosity,” NC State TRIO Senior Pre-College Programs Director Maurice Mathis said. “Their commitment to TRIO is an investment in potential. This endowment provides us with the essential resources to elevate our college access and success initiatives, ensuring we can continue opening doors and removing barriers for deserving students for years to come.”

TRIO’s mission is a perfect fit for the Petersons, who were looking for just such a giving opportunity in order to make a far-reaching as well as long-lasting impact.

“I know it’s going to sound corny and trite, but I really believe that we all have a responsibility to make whatever space we occupy better than it was,” Shannon said. “We just want to have an opportunity to help someone like people helped us. They didn’t have to, and it changed the trajectory of our lives, and we recognize that. If we can do the same for someone else, I think that’s what it’s all about.”

The Petersons hope their namesake fund will achieve that goal and inspire other donors to support this important area of need through their own giving.

“The Petersons’ generosity affirms the transformative power of TRIO and the belief that access, opportunity and sustained support change lives,” NC State TRIO Senior Collegiate Programs Director Courtney Simpson said. “This endowment enables us to expand student-centered programming, respond to emerging needs and ensure that TRIO continues to be a place where students are known, supported and empowered to achieve their academic and career goals.”

In thinking of moments that have shaped his life in fundamental ways, Peterson said receiving his football scholarship was definitely one of them. Leaving practice the day that Kiffin made the announcement was particularly emotional.

“I was in the back of a teammate’s truck with all of our football gear, riding back to campus because that was where our locker rooms were at the time,” Peterson said. “And I remember looking up at the sky, up at the clouds, and I started crying.

“I hadn’t known how I was going to afford to stay at NC State, and then Coach Kiffin announced that I was receiving that scholarship. It was an overwhelming feeling of relief that everything was going to be OK.”

Through the Petersons’ gift of paying it forward, many more students will feel that same kind of relief through TRIO’s invaluable work.

Visit trio.dasa.ncsu.edu to learn more about NC State’s TRIO programs, and click here to make a gift of your own supporting the programs.